- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (21 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571205364
- ISBN-13: 978-0571205363
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 638,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Timothy Findley's Pilgrim is the story of a man who can't die even though he tries over and over to kill himself. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, in 1912 he's placed in a Zurich clinic where Carl Gustav Jung is hard as work trying to determine the perimeter of the collective unconscious. For Jung, this man becomes an embodiment of the psyche's mystery. Claiming to have no past history but to have simply arrived one day at consciousness, Pilgrim lives in a limbo outside individuality and subjectivity. He's everyone and no one. Is he a messenger? Or is he a basket case? As the novel gathers momentum, we realise that Pilgrim is a character much like Virginia Woolf's Orlando, traversing gender and time, a witness. But whereas Woolf is a feverish and emotional writer, Findley is philosophical and dry, playful and slightly pretentious. Imagining conversations between Pilgrim and Henry James, Leonardo da Vinci, and Oscar Wilde, this novel is like a party full of beautiful guests. Or a safe train trip through an exotic landscape of consciousness where men use cologne that smells like "moss ... lemons ... ferns" and schizophrenics are elegant and well dressed, like the old countess who believes she lives on the moon and asks her doctor, "Is this a ballroom? Am I being courted?" --Emily White, Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk Review
Timothy Findley's Pilgrim is the story of a man who can't die even though he tries over and over to kill himself. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, in 1912 he's placed in a Zurich clinic where Carl Gustav Jung is hard at work trying to determine the perimeter of the collective unconscious. For Jung, this man becomes an embodiment of the psyche's mystery. Claiming to have no past history but to have simply arrived one day at consciousness, Pilgrim lives in a limbo outside individuality and subjectivity. He's everyone and no one. Is he a messenger? Or is he a basket case? As the novel gathers momentum, we realise that Pilgrim is a character much like Virginia Woolf's Orlando, a witness traversing gender and time. Imagining conversations between Pilgrim and Henry James, Leonardo da Vinci, and Oscar Wilde, this novel is like a party full of beautiful guests. Or a safe train trip through an exotic landscape of consciousness where men use cologne that smells like "moss...lemons...ferns", and schizophrenics are elegant and well dressed, like the old countess who believes she lives on the moon and asks her doctor, "Is this a ballroom? Am I being courted?" --Emily White
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Inside the front doors of the Burgholzli Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich, a nursed named Dora Henkel and an orderly whose name was Kessler were waiting to greet a new patient and his companion. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Inside the front doors of the Burgholzli Psychiatric Clinic in Zurich, a nursed named Dora Henkel and an orderly whose name was Kessler were waiting to greet a new patient and his companion. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book is misleading right from the start where it claims to be a story of a man who cannot die. We meet Pilgrim at the climax of his suffering when one of his many and varied attempts of suicide has failed. He is taken to the Alpine Insititute by a friend/believer/prophet/angel where he excites the interest of the radiantly arrogant Jung. As much the story of Pilgrim, this book follows the development of Jung, whose comfortable acceptance of his own faith and methods is gradually and painfully stretched, resulting in the flash of brilliance that becomes his understanding of the collective unconscious.
The book is like a rich, rude afternoon dream. Peopled with Saints, messengers, artists as diverse as Da Vinci and Oscar Wilde it is still the "real" humans in the book that give it honesty and that makes it as sad as it is funny.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To keep me hooked, a work of contemporary fiction needs to work in terms of character, narrative and superb writing quality. To be memorable, the work needs to be original, self assured and credible within its context. Findley's Pilgrim is first and foremost a fascinating creative work. The realm of an imbalanced mind is rich material to work with, but all too often writers can't manage the complexity or control the vast potential - they drown, taking the reader down with them. Findley avoids the obvious pitfalls and the reader is able to empathise with the variety of psychological profiles he encounters. It is arguable who the main character is - Pilgrim or Jung, and indeed, which of the two is suffering from mental illness. Few writers today can pull off Findley's rich style without eventually becoming tiresome - luckily, the reader is never conscious of a heavy hand. Findley is deft and subtle in the application of his craft, resulting in a truly entertaining read. Each of the characters is a worthy subject for a book of his/her own, and my criticism of the Pilgrim would simply be that a great deal of fascinating material is sadly left unexplored. Don't let the subject matter put you off - this is a thoroughly accessible, and yet elegant and layered work of creative fiction. Though the characters are complex, their rendering is crystal clear. If you like the works of John Fowles, you won't be disappointed here.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Once again, Timothy Findley has delivered an ambitious work that collapses under the weight of his precious and melodramatic writing style. He manages even to reduce Carl Jung to a self-indulgent boob. With most of the characters writhing in psycho-sexual agony and ecstacy, the reader is left wishing for a simple, declarative sentence and some semblance of a point to the whole thing. Damned if I could find one. The writing is so lush and convoluted that it scompletely obscures what little story there is. All that remains is a jumble of myth and symbol, dreams and inner monolgues that is tiresome and hard to follow. To me, it was little more than a compendium of psychological cliches.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Making Fun of the Dead
I've got to be careful here, because I haven't yet finished this book but from where I'm at (three quarters through) the book's going nowhere fast. Read more
Published on 27 April 2009 by J. Burgess
Never has learning been so much fun!
Having read Findley's 'Spadework' and enjoyed it, I decided to try 'Pilgrim', which I knew would be totally different. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2003 by Gemma Kopel
Pilgrim the Nietzchean hero?
This book has similarities with Woolf's 'Orlando' & Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray' in that it's about a man who is immortal. Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2001
Compelling.
From it's somewhat (dark) atmospheric start the book unravels gradually to expose the (weird & wonderful) life of Carl Gustav Jung & the Alpine sanatorium where he... Read more
Published on 22 April 2001
An excellent and highly-recommended read
This is an excellent novel. Its subject is original,and the writing is excellent. Once you begin reading it, you will find it difficult to put down. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2001
An extremely well written novel of destruction and creation
Among other things, Findley's novel presents an interesting view on the human condition and it's loss of vision. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2000
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